Tag Archives: templates

UPDATED: I’ve re-added the PDF to include the number zero. Critical for 10th 20th, 50th, etc and really it should have been there from the beginning. Sorry about that.

So I am going to add these as well. Hopefully they will prove helpful. I’ve done some basic shapes, and numbers, and the ordinal abbreviations (st, nd, rd, th) in what I hope is a good size. I thought they would work for Anniversary gifts, or birthdays.

The lines may not look right, depending on the resolution of your monitor, but I would say print a single page first before writing them off. For example, on MY screen it looks like the two hands holding are darker, like maybe it is showing them overlapping, in the shot above, but in reality…

I had to rotate the 5’s, because the thin line did not show up as lines to fold. I may do another font that works better, but all the rest of the letters look so good for this one, I wanted to add it. I would say probably all but the solid heart is at least an intermediate level project. Although, maybe they aren’t any more challenging than a name…

A word about A4 v US letter – if the bottom of the page is cut off for US letter printers, please let me know. I suspect this might be the case for the alphabet pages from yesterday, I just don’t know.

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I have to dash off to cardio rehab shortly but I have been mulling over a way I might make the folded book templates available to all in a simple way, a way that people can customize to fit any name.

A follower, Nancy, asked for 4 or so names and hinted she would probably be wanting more. We chatted about how I could provide her with an alphabet, but as she didn’t have Photoshop or the like, it seemed an impossible task. But then when another commenter asked for an alphabet, I thought again and thought this might actually work!

The best I can do is add it and let you tell me if it does!

So I did two versions, one is a more plain (dare I say boyish?) font and one a bit more scripty but not overly feminine. The fonts are Abril

and Habano ST

As you can see, the PDF has all the individual letter of the alphabet. My thought is that you can print the sheets with the letters you need, then either tape them securely into the word to create your own book folding template OR you can simply fold each letter in sequence. What do you think? Workable or not?

Here are the PDFs. If it does work and there is a specific font you would like, comment and I will see if I have it or can get it. I can amass a collection of these then people don’t need to wait for me to have time to create a custom name for them. I can also do things like hearts, stars, etc if there is interest.

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I’m interested to see how this works. I made a set of tags and flags for planners, etc. Well I went ahead and made a cutting file (.svg) for them.

To be honest, I don’t have the kind of cutting machine that lets me scan and cut or alight printed papers with the cutting lines. I can sort of make these work but it’s a bit hit or miss. Inserting the carrier ever so slightly to one side or the other and it isn’t a very close cut. But I had two thoughts – first, there will be those who can make the file work with the printable sheet, and second, the shapes themselves are cute and useful, so just using the cutting file to cut them out of patterned cardstock or paper would be fine.

The OTHER thing I wanted to test is to see if I can add a link to the file here by hosting it on UKS and doing that rather than using Dropbox. So I’m going to try it. THIS is the UKS hosted file. and my goodness! It seems to work! Astonishing. It’s always annoyed me that I had to send people to Dropbox for downloads. I don’t do many that aren’t in a format that WordPress allows, but I would rather have them downloadable from here.

So I’ll be curious to know if it works for you so LMK.

Quite a bit going on today. I decided to re-design my planner, for a few reasons. This is what I had yesterday:

This is what it looks like now:

I am happy with the layout but not with the colour. It might be a little too bright. I’ll have to print it and see….

But for now I’ll have to put it on hold as there is a car that needs replacing. {sigh}

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This is a multi-step process and I hope it will be clear. Let’s begin with an annotated template that will act as an overview of the steps. This is the BACK SIDE (inside).

1. Print and score the template as shown. It will need to be on decent but not super heavy-weight cardstock, although see my note later for a method to use thinner paper.

This is what it will look like

2. I use two interlocked loom bands as the mechanism. It’s not as springy as a slightly larger rubber band, maybe about an 1 1/2, twisted into a figure 8 would be, but it works well enough and it’s what I have.

You can see where the rubber band goes. it fits into the valley behind the mountain folds – this is the front/outside you see.

The two sides get stuck together, encasing the rubber band. Then the flaps get stuck to the flat inside. Now you are looking at the back/inside of the cube.

You can cut just the hourglass section again, and reinforce it on the inside it the rubber band looks like it is tearing the cardstock. This will let you use scrapbooking paper rather than cardstock.

3. Looking at the annotated template, you will stick the tabs to the triangles.

Be aware that at this point, the cube will do it’s best to self-destruct.

Do this in pairs – the two top

and then the two bottom

4. Collapse the sides so you have a flat piece. You are likely to think an extra hand would be useful about now. Do one side

then the other. The last tab gets tucked inside and stuck.

Once you release the tension, the cube will pop up!

This is the paper-weight version and it pops beautifully.

Hopefully that will help. You can print or otherwise decorate the outside before you begin, or cut squares and add them to a plain cardstock base.

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I just had to work it out. Tricky, and not perfect, but so long as you smooth the curves when cutting, I think it will work well enough. They can be cut from 2 sheets of card then overlapped in the centre to make a bigger form. There is also a single form, sized to fit on a single sheet of card – that is the size I used for the one I made here:

The PDF is three pages – left and right of the two-sheet version and the full one-sheet smaller version. Sorry for the dodgy lines, it was really tricky to get them smooth. But like I said, just smooth the curves when cutting – there seems to be a little dip in the centre of the neck, for example, where I stitched the two halves together for the full-sheet version.

The photos show a fatter version I played with so anything you see that makes you go Hummm? is probably down to that. The PDF version works the same as this first attempt.

Just cut out the two halves, if doing the BIG version

Score the lines at neck and armpit. I find it best to sort of pinch-walk along the crease to create the shape

And once you overlap you will have the full front, like so

Punch the little dots and thread thru some ribbon/string/twine and depending on how tight you pull that you can get a slightly different look

I used some washi tape and this version has text on the body, which I decided wasn’t a great idea.

I’m still hunting for a template that someone else (who is better at this than I am) already did but not finding it. But then DH has been sorting out some back-up issues and talking about replacing my hard drive (shudder) so my Google hunting time hasn’t been all that much. Still, this will do in a pinch and I’ll add a better one if I find it.

Oh and you can obviously increase the size with a photocopy for an even bigger version although the 2-part one is, I think, an OK size if you want to use it for an actual necklace display at a craft fair. In which case I would refer you back to the original link for how she covers hers with sticky-backed felt or fun foam, for example.

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We have been having a lively discussion over on UKS. You may have seen the recent printables that I made by request, that sprang out of that discussion. One of the members commented that she might try cutting on of the printables I was asking them to look at, and it got me thinking about cutting files. The lovely Doreen, who is that rare mix of knowledge and willing to share/teach, helped me immensely with just a couple of comments and a few screenshots, solve a problem that I didn’t know I had LOL! That is the biggest issue in using a program I adore, but that no one else uses. Who do you ask for help?

Anyway let’s try to be organized here. These are all based around Polaroid frames, that’s how it began.

1. Set One is a PRINTABLE – Designed specifically for the UKS ladies:

It was a bit of an experiment and I wasn’t 100% happy with the font. I thought a stencil font would make sense, but it turns out getting the drop shadows right is tricky. But I’ll add them here in case anyone can use them. Note the very faint background. I am experimenting with that instead of a fine line to show the card area.

2. Set Two is another printable – designed to address the font choice.

3. Then I got a bit crazy and made these – just to see how they would work, basically. But having made them I kinda feel like why NOT add them? My issue with them is, as it is with every printable that is super ink-intense, is that depending on your printer, they may not be exactly economical. KWIM? Printer ink is not cheap. But here you go:

I love ’em, and think they look cute as can be, but was a little worried (with all of them, actually) that the corner rounding debate (another UKS discussion – to round or not to round? and may heat up once the SU! Project Life cards (not rounded) get released) would mean only non-rounders would use them unless I really reduced the interior window.

SO that took me on to the cutting file idea. A few experiments later and I ended up with these:

4. The .svg file (can’t add it here, so it’ll have to be DropBox if I can remember how to use it LOL!) looks like this:

and cut they look like this – you need to save the little ring from the camera and the thumbs-up then stick them to the backing card to complete the image.

Note that these are rounded. I took the extra step of finding a good image of a PL card online, then did my level best to match the corner as best I could. I also looked at posts in a number of places that claim the ACTUAL size of a PL card is 2.9 x 3.9 inches. So I made them that size.

Now if I did it right, you should be able to grab it on DropBox here. If not, comment and I’ll sort you out somehow.

Now I really really need to step away from the computer. Love making printables, but I have a crop this Saturday, and my messy painty AJ play is calling to me, as well as another little experiment I am itching to test, plus the shopping, the laundry, and a few things going on with DD this week. At the moment the Net and email are stable (knock wood, big time) and the car is repaired and available (more wood-knocking) and my To Do list is a mile long…including more paperwork to be filed, so much so that DH is beginning to regret passing on the filing to me. I just really have to bite the bullet and finish it up… DOH!

Really, I almost feel every post should come with an Executive Summary at the top – just the facts and links, M’am... cause who actually reads every word? LOL!

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I did say I wanted to try it so I did. I wanted to see how the flexagon structure would work for a mini-book. I think it worked, but the inherent problems with it made me think of another use.

Start with creating the flexagon as I mentioned in the post here. I opted to make it as close to 12 x 12, with the idea that the photos wouldn’t be skimpy, even in the fairly small areas.

I made another on using the only large format paper I had on hand, which was vellum/tracing paper. I stuck the circles to create the structure with repositionable adhesive, so I could see where the folds were. My plan was to make templates to use when cutting the actual photos and/or decorative papers to add.

That allowed me to note the various shapes and cut apart the sample to create templates. Once I had folded t, it opened each section and noted the direction of the photo and how many of each section, with what orientation and number I needed.

Problem One: With the best will in the world, and as much attention to detail as you can muster, getting ever fold absolutely precise, the EXACT same size, is impossible if you aren’t a programmed machine. Creasing to the left of a line one time and to the right of it another is going to have the cumulative effect of things being “out” when all those tiny differences are added up. Accept it.

I had the idea to do something I’ve always done when using odd-shaped templates for photos, which is to cut them from black card, scan them, take them and the photos into PSE and use the shapes as a mask – that way I print only the area of a photo I need. I started down that route but had the niggling suspicion that I wasn’t going to be entirely happy with the project in the end, so went instead to a stockpile of old printed photos, with the idea I would make one and see how I felt about it in the end, while not spending a huge amount of time on it.

Where I discovered the cumulative effects of so many folds was when I tried to match the templates to the actual piece.

They fit fairly well, but I noticed that, for example, with the cover, the small shape at the top is actually repeated 4 times, the large shape twice. BUT the top two small shapes were every so slightly smaller than the bottom two. It was the same in every case, where a shape LOOKED the same, but it was slightly different. I just resolved not to worry about it if they were not perfectly matted, but still checked each template according to which photo I was cutting, and adjusted on the fly.

Problem Two: There are a couple of areas that you will see either in two different flips OR thru a gap to another page. Not a PROBLEM, per se, but it’s worth checking to make sure those repeated photos work with both pages.

Problem Three – The photos in some areas are really big. The middle two, top and bottom above, are 5 x 7 prints and they are too short to fill the area. You can work around that by leaving the background on show, like here, OR by covering that area with decorative paper or an embellishment or journaling OR you can cut two photos smaller to fill the page OR cut many smaller photos. MY aim was to have the biggest photos I could for each section. You’ll see how I dealt with it at the end.

And that leads nicely on the PROBLEM FOUR, which is, I think the biggest one (no pun intended) – it’s so darn BIG! a 12 x 12 “mini-book” is no mini! Where would you put it? How would you display it? – especially given there is no way to have a cover that protects it because that would totally interfere with the flip action! and unless you only want there to be two flips, leaving the front AND the back as “covers” of only decorative paper, there will be photos on the back page, the final flip before returning to the front cover, exposed.

Let me show you the un-decorated version – I’ll add some flat decorative items, some journaling blocks, etc, to finish it off – and then talk about how I think it COULD be used.

The “Cover”

the first flip – I just added some decorative strips to extend the too small photos:

Note those two side photos – here they are again in flip two!

Also note you can see thru to the last page – I tried to get faces in those areas by careful photo cutting with some success, but it may not matter too much. Just be aware.

And the final flip before returning to the cover – this would be the BACK cover if you left it as decorative paper, which is a waste of good photo space! Note too you can see the green bits from the front cover. You may think they could be the green curves from the previous page, but they aren’t. That may inform your title placement. unless you want sideways words appearing here.

Right. So while I so love the flipping action of this how do I make it more usable or do I give up on it?

1. I DO think it works in this large size as a LAYOUT. The hint was in the title of this blog post LOL! So, decorate the cover, add the journaling, and slip the whole thing into a page protector in your album just as if it were a round layout. Where might it work?

first or last page of an album

any memorable moment with lots of photos but I think it would be fab as maybe a Baby’s First Year, where the flipping action could highlight the changes in a baby.

it might also work for maybe school photos? If you, for example, did the repeating photos as 1st grade and 6th grade (or nursery and year 6) that could be cute.

any sort of THEN and NOW layout – dating photos, ending with a wedding? documenting a weight loss or makeover or haircuts over the years?

Any of those things COULD work for a layout topic.

2. Make it smaller as a mini-book (I’m thinking 8 inch circles to start) and use photos only in the biggest spaces, saving the smaller ones for journaling. Present it in a large custom box or envelope.

3. Make is smaller still (6 inch circles like the Steins;Gate doodah for DS) and present it with photos only in the middle two flips, leaving the front and back as decorative, and present it more as a CARD, for a really special person on a really special occasion.

So that draws a line under this particular experiment. It was fun, working it out, I’m calling mine a LAYOUT and will put it in an album. The photos are a bit random, but I would call it Out and About, or something like that as all the photos are from days out, or at the very least out in the garden. That works for me.

If you find a use for this that I haven’t thought of, do share. I still think it makes a cute card, but I really like the interactive nature of it with the photos. But I’ve satisfied my curiosity so I can move on….

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Important note!One user commented the scoring marks on the templates were too close together for the card she used. Ruth re-did the plain template and will re-do the Oval one. They are now in Dropbox, here. Download the ones with MORESPACE in the name for the improved versions! If you plan to print and hand score/cut then the originals are fine, no need to grab the improved ones.

I also have been sent an SVG by the lovely Ruth. She created it in MTC and sent a MTC file format too! I can’t append any of those formats here but I can add it to Dropbox, where you should be able to download it. One of the SVGs has the oval in place, the other is plain, for you to use whatever you like to create the aperture. click the links to see the download files. Thank you Ruth!

I have not tested them, as I only have the baby Cricut and they are too large. but PLEASE LMK if there is any problems with them.

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Yes, I know how rare it is for me to do more than one post in a day but as tomorrow will be a BIG CARD day I didn’t really want to wait to add this new info!

I swear I was dreaming about corner punches. I so loved yesterday’s video technique but there was one bit that I felt I could add to. The bits between the edge punches. Warning – this is very photo heavy. Slow connections be warned! Think to yourself at least there is no annoying music…

We will start with Veronica’s grid idea. Print the grid – I chose to do it on fairly heavy card so I could keep it in my stash and use it over and over. Cut your circle (and mine is the largest CM circle template with the green cutting pod – about 6″ in diameter) and make your grid marks on the back of this card. For these punches I marked every three wedges.

Connect the marks to create the full guidelines.

Fold in the wings of your corner punch. Lining up the point with the edge of the paper, and the grid line with the centre of the punch areas, punch!

Carry on around the circle, punching the corner motif at each of the grid lines.

This is what you end up with. So far we are right on target with Veronica’s instructions. But now we are going to veer off in two ways. First, I am not excellent at eyeballing things. This is why I originally went looking for the circle grid – hey, I know my limitations and anything that will help me overcome them is welcome! This triangle on the edge is fine – if you want to keep them as part of the design, by all means stop here. I didn’t want them for this particular punch and I knew if I just tried to trim them they would end up wonky. So I cast my eyes across my desk looking for a solution. The simple circle punch was the answer!

Lining up the circle so just the tiny edges of the already-punched motifs fell just inside, I punched. How cool is this!?

I really like the almost Victorian edge it gives, and the fact that I now have a standard pattern, and not my eyeballed attempts to create uniformity. Check it out with a different corner!

OK, we are not done yet! The other cool thing about the MS corners is those collapsible wings. With them pushed in, you can actually get a much deeper cut from the edge with the corner punches than you expect. If you flip it over and go back to your grid line, this time slipping that corner punch deep into your circle, at every other wedge, you can get a second layer of punches!

See how it is placed WITHIN the wedge rather than along the grid line?

Now punch this layer.

I hope you can see that if you tried to punch along the grid lines you would actually cut out the entire middle section, as the cutting lines would overlap.

NOT done yet! Using your All over the Page punch, line up the centre of your circle with the centre of the punch – I find a dab of Hermafix will hold it in place on the base. Put the punch over the base, using the magnets to position/secure it, and punch out the central motif.

And this is what you end up with! I added a couple of extra hole punched circles. You can use it like this as a car topper or as a doily on a layout.

Likewise you can add a circle rather than the anywhere punch, or you could simply cut a circle out to make an open frame.

And the other version (where clearly the sun had gone behind a cloud for the photo)

I actually did one where I punched the border, then cut out the centre circle and brought the punch in from the middle, creating a frame that had the corner punch facing out on the outer edge and in on the inner edge, but it is tricky to line up perfectly and I am not 100% happy with the sample. I’ll add it but it’s rubbish at this point and needs refining.

Just so you can visualize where I am going with it!

and finally, as if there aren’t enough photos, here is my desk:

The process does generate a lot of debris!

Have fun with it. I think other sorts of connector punches (I have a little rectangle and a BIG triangle where I think just the tip might give a nice effect) that I want to try – I also think there might be something to using a flower punch or maybe a leaf , not sure. You know me – I’ll likely do this to death till I feel I have exhausted the possibilities or I get bored, so there may still be more to come.

Now, I really MUST do the laundry….

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I love the internet. I wonder how I ever got along without it some days. The problem is that I often see something that I am so inspired by and want to have a go RIGHT THEN, and all too often I don’t have to stash I need to do it. Case in point – this weekend, I saw a post on Tim Holtz’ blog. It was a lovely tag that had the prettiest flowers made with stick-backed canvas (by Claudine Hellmuth) and Distress ink. There was a link to the project on the Ranger blog and a template. OK, so I am awaiting a box of all the new Distress Ink colours, and have never had any sticky-backed canvas but I really REALLY wanted to make these flowers. My creative mind went in to overdrive as I cast my eyes around my scrap room looking for some reasonable alternative. I thought about Xyron’ing adhesive to the back of some canvas fabric but as I considered that process I thought how pretty they would look with fabric. Still, no sticky-backed fabric either, so still in the Xyron groove. Then I thought about a little video I saw a while back for making ribbon flowers and how she stuck the ribbon to the chipboard and that cemented the idea for me. I had a go and loved the result.

I made a quick little video of the process.

I am back on the Xyron-with-canvas fabric idea now, which may work out, and may not, but it’ll be fun playing with the idea in any case. Mine don’t really share much with Tim’s as they look nothing like roses, really, but of course they use his template. They remind me more of the paper “lollypop” flowers. So my flowers are a sort of “mash up” of ideas, but I know I would not have arrived at them so quickly (it was about 3 hours from seeing the blog post to a final flower, and about 2 1/2 hours was Stickles drying time LOL!) without the inspiration from the internet.

It is funny how it happens – and lately it’s been happening A LOT – that you see something any your brain just shoots off along all these tangents until you come to a final lace where you think “YES! that could be cool,” like some massive and bizarre creative flow chart.

What my poor programmer DH would think of that chart I do not know!

As it’s no school for the kids this week posts may be a bit thin on the ground. I’m sure my two subscribers will survive …..